Damned Hotshot wishbones! Why do they have to be so weak?? [:(]

[Wandy]

[:'(] [:'(][:'(]

My Hotshot shelf queen, new built from out of the box and having never turned a wheel in anger in all of it's life, has now just gone through two offside-front lower wishbones. The car barely gets touched apart from the odd flex of the suspension to give it a different look when sitting on the shelf...and yet it would seem that this is enough to weaken them at the area which locates to the front damper.

I came in from work the other day to find the car looking like this... (see pic below)

I presume that this weakening is merely due to exposure to sunlight and air over the last 20 years, combined with a lack of "working" of the plastic?? I have no evidence to back it up but I believe that a part is actually somehow strengthened by getting a bit of a workout on a car, rather than just sitting doing nothing over the course of it's life span. After all my Hotshot runner has had no such problems and that car has had plenty of action on the road.

Anyway that's a THIRD 'F' tree that will have been on this car. I think I will keep it in the dark from now on!!!!! []

 

[Wandy]

Here's a closer look at the damage. The previous wishbone failed in the exact same place. Grrrrr!![:@]

Anyone else suffered a similar fate??

[Classic RC Fan]

You're right, runner hotshots don't seem to do this... (mine never broke there) It must be the plastic getting brittle with age.  Have you tried keeping the plastic nourished with some Silicone?

I spray my cars with silicone about once every 6 months.  Just a light spray they wipe off.  It keeps tyres especially supple and black.  It also repels dust like you wouldn't believe!

Anyother thing could be temperature change, plastic likes to be kept in a constant(ish) temp.

I think we should start keeping our babies in climate and moisture controlled showrooms!! []

[kontemax]

My Hot Shot made the same thing!!! In my opinion this damage is caused by the age and the early plastic compound. I knew all Hot Shots suffered of breakages on the track because they were the first Tamiya's plastic cars. Age and sun completed the job. Also the extra stiff front coil spring could help the lower arms to breakage. Buy some next generation plastic parts like Boomerang, Hot Shot 2 and Super Sabre ones. They are better and probably will never break.

[terry.sc]

The problem is it is a really terrible design, there is so much load

put on one tiny piece of plastic. Later cars didn't suffer from

breakages at this point as Tamiya fitted an extra piece of plastic

around it to support the joint when they fitted bigger shock absorbers

on the Boomerang/HotshotII/Super Sabre.

I also have a shelf queen Hotshot on display that has sat there for

years with no problem. The difference could be that mine is sitting on

a block with the springs at their softest setting. This way there is no

load on the suspension arms and would prevent this from happening.

[djmcnz]

Store it in a humidor... seems the only option...

[Wandy]

Hmm, well a quick look through my spare parts has made me realise that the last wishbone that failed was infact the one on the other side so luckily I dont have to fork out another £20 on yet another set of 'F' parts. Lets see how long this one lasts eh?!! [^o)]

 

[RichieRich]

I store my shelf queens on blocks as Terry stated earlier.  This also eliminates flat spots on the tires.

[mike32]

I know how you feel, i bought a near mint Hotshot from ebay, as i pulled it apart to grease it up abit, both rear wishbones (R-parts) snapped, making me fork out another $40 USD for replacements, they were even clean with no signs of wear, it must be age related, some of these plastics are 20+ years old, and perhaps, back them, plastics weren't as tough as they are now with new models.

Mike30.